Painting (RCN corvette depth charges)

[ralley77]

Hello my name is Les. This is my first post on your site. I am building the 1/72 revell Corvette. Question. I am trying to get the correct colour for the depth charges for a Canadian Corvette. Some research shows white and some has shown a green colour. I would like to get this right. Thanx Les.

[George Hargreaves]

Hi Les,

Do have a look at some of the finished 'Flowers' and the thread on corvettes, viewtopic.php?f=52&t=4747&hilit=flower.

Here are the depth charges on HMCS Sackville in Halifax. She is in 1942 Western Approaches scheme.

HMCS Sackville Depth Charge Thrower.JPG

As you can see not white, not green but very light grey with red and blue markings.

Cheers,
George

[ralley77]

Thanks George. I have a fair amount of research material for these boats. Flower Class Corvettes by John Lambert, Corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy by Marc Milner and a great build by Kevin Wenker in my Finescale Modeler magazine. In my books the photos are of course black and white, but the depth charges are definitely a darker colour and may be an early version of depth charges. The ones shown on the Sackville are probably later and are light grey with a green diamond like pattern and red stripe. To show they are filled with amatol. My model is the Snowberry and Revell calls for a 50 50 mix of flat black and steel. So Les is mucho confused as colours seem to have a range. I am wondering if the Canadian Govt or the British Govt has info. I would like to get this correct.

[George Hargreaves]

Hi,

It would be a great help if you could specify which corvette the Revel kit is to used to model and at what time frame?

Cheers,
George

[Admhawk]

In short, there is no straight answer. I'm pretty sure most came from the factory painted black, but that may have varied with available paint stock and at some point may have been grey. There was often a shortage of paint in Canada during the war and there are stories of sailors dumping canadian paint over the sides because it didn't stick very well, and using English or US stocks instead.

The problem comes when they are on the ships. Many, but not all, were painted in the colour of the ship. So some were WA green, or blue or B30 etc.. That's why it's so hard to tell from photos, because they weren't all the same.

Ships boats suffered this issue as well.

[ralley77]

Good day George. Thanks for the info. My kit will be the Snowberry as this one of the choices for the photo etch supplied by D.J. Parkins. Time frame for this kit would be before the refit in Feb, 1944 @ Baltimore. But my best guess would be sometime around 1943.

[George Hargreaves]

Hi Les,

There are some great shots of HMCS Snowberry leaving Charleston in 1943. There is also a fabulous build by patmat at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1430946, highly recommended. have a look at this shot from Flickr showing HMCS Snowberry leaving Charleston https://www.flickr.com/photos/16118167@N04/6770320545/ looking down onto the stern.

HMCS Snowberry Depth Charge.JPG

This is a snip of the depth charges. As you can see they are a lighter grey than the deck. The blue and red bands are not visible but they should be there.

Cheers,
George